Job numbers up in US ahead of Fed meeting
A STRONG increase in US private sector employment was recorded during November, according to official statistics released yesterday, as the Federal Reserve’s regional banks pointed to modest and moderate growth across the country.
The latest employment report from Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed that 215,000 jobs were created last month, about 40,000 more than analysts had projected. The news drove the S&P 500 down about eight points to below 1,780, rising again later in the day.
The news raised market fears that the Federal Open Market Committee could taper its quantitative easing programme in the group’s December meeting, in less than two weeks.
The Federal Reserve’s assessment of economic conditions, was also released last night. All Fed branches pointed to further growth “at a modest to moderate pace”.
Deutsche Bank’s Joseph LaVorgna noted that there have been other surprisingly positive data in the past two weeks: “We expect this trend to continue, given the November employment survey is so closely correlated with the change in private payrolls.”